


5 Times Sterling Joined the Team, +1 Time He Didn’t

by aunt_zelda



Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Hostage Situations, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Multi, Pre-Threesome, Team as Family, Threats, Threesome - F/M/M, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 21:43:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5431865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aunt_zelda/pseuds/aunt_zelda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exactly what it says on the tin. Five vignettes meant to correspond to the five seasons, plus one that takes place post-show. How, why, and when could Sterling have joined the team?</p>
            </blockquote>





	5 Times Sterling Joined the Team, +1 Time He Didn’t

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Teaotter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teaotter/gifts).



> Written for teaotter, for the Leverage Secret Santa Gift Exchange. 
> 
> Based off this prompt: "AU: Sterling joins the team."
> 
> I hope you enjoy the various ideas I came up with for this. Happy Secret Santa!

1.

James resigns in protest, after IYS lets Nate’s son die. A good number of other employees do as well. They start their own insurance firm. 

James goes with them. Nate goes into a bottle. 

When the divorce with Maggie is finalized, Nate stays in James’ guest bedroom. For a week, he insists. That turns into two weeks, and a month. Just when James thinks that he and Nate should have a serious talk, Nate meets Victor Dubenich. The deal with Dubenich goes down and then Nate is off with a crowd of thieves and James is left alone, confused, and worried about his friend. 

He shows up at their office one day, an office like any other in downtown Los Angeles. James stares down the longhaired man in the corner. He’s a dangerous one, James can spot that a mile away. So is the blonde girl, in a different way, sitting in the corner eating fortune cookies by the dozen. 

“Why are you here, Sterling?” Nate practically snarls. James doesn’t need to spot the bottle sticking out of the drawer to know that Nate’s already been drinking this morning. 

“I’m here to help you take down Blackpoole.” James says.

Nate stares at him for a long moment. 

James finds which office is Nate’s, plants himself in a chair, and waits.

Nate locks the door, locks out the thieves and their prying eyes. 

They talk, at last. They talk about a lot of things. About Maggie, and Sam, and IYS. They talk about helping people who can’t stand up for themselves against huge, impossible weights in the world. 

All in all, it sounds much better than the insurance firm James has been working with for the past few months. 

They leave the room partners again. 

 

2.

James shifts his weight and moves his arms, leaning forward just enough. 

“Take my gun,” he whispers, low enough that even those pesky earbuds won’t be able to listen in. 

Nate stares at him in utter shock. 

“Take my gun,” James hisses, “and then take me.”

Nate grabs the gun with one hand and James with the other, gripping Sterling around the throat. It’s tight enough to hurt, to look convincing for the other agents who are suddenly pointing their guns and shouting. 

“Nate, what are you doing?!” Sophie exclaims. 

Spencer stares, visibly impressed. James, hyper-aware and noticing more information than he can process, sees Hardison and Parker holding hands.

“Let me and my team go free, and I will return Agent Sterling unharmed by tomorrow.” Nate growls. It’s intimidating. It works. 

James is shocked when Nate drags him all the way to the helicopter. He thinks that Nate will shove him out at the last second, but he doesn’t. Nate keeps a tight grip on James’ arm as they fly away, as the city of Boston diminishes.

Spencer is glaring. “We’re at the right height, Nate, if you want him gone.”

Hardison looks horrified. Sophie bites her lip. Parker watches, intently, to see what will happen next. 

James looks at Nate. He wants to say ‘I gave you my gun.’ He wants to say ‘I had no idea that IYS denied Sam’s treatment.’ He wants to say ‘I’m sorry.’

The fall will kill him, from this height. He knows that. What he doesn’t know is what that will do to Nate.

“No,” Nate says, not taking his eyes off of James. “He stays.”

Spencer slumps back against the helicopter seats, still glaring at James occasionally. 

That night, holed up in a safehouse deep in the New Hampshire woods, James manages to get Nate alone in the kitchen. 

“You should keep me for longer than twenty-four hours.” James says, sipping on the coffee he insisted on making for himself. Spencer might obey Nate, but that doesn’t mean James will drink anything Spencer hands to him.

“Should I?” Nate raises an eyebrow. “You want to be our Patty Hearst?”

“Don’t be crass, Nate, it’s not like you.”

“And how would you know, Sterling?”

James winces. “Remember when you used to call me ‘James?’”

“I remember when we used to fuck, yes.” Nate sips from his own mug, spiked with something no doubt. 

Over on the other side of the house, Hardison splutters and tries to look like he wasn’t listening. Parker shrugs. Spencer reluctantly hands a few crumpled bills to Sophie, who fixes James with a knowing smile. 

James looks away from her and stares at Nate. “You’re a wanted man, Nate. You just abducted an Interpol Agent. This is far bigger than anything your team has dealt with before.”

“And how do you propose we get out of this one?” Nate asks. “After all, the whole reason we’re here is because of you.”

James would argue semantics, but now is really not the time. He has to prove himself to this team, if he wants to stay. “We have to leave this country, of course. For a while. The FBI is very persistent in such matters.”

Hardison raises his hand. “I’ve got a list of countries planned out for just such an occasion. Cross-referenced all the places we really shouldn’t go.”

“Good, because I’m wanted in a lot of unfriendly areas,” Spencer fixes James with a pointed look. “For some very violent actions.”

“Just make sure there’s lots of museums.” Parker says. “I need to steal something good after this last job.”

Sophie slinks over, beautiful even in rumpled clothes and windblown hair. “Are you sure about this, Nate?” she asks, eyeing James up and down. 

James presses his lips together, waiting. 

“I’m sure.” Nate says. He holds out his hand. “Welcome to the team, James.”

 

3.

“Hello, Nate.” 

“Hello, Sterling.”

There’s a long pause. They drink at the bar, not looking at each other. 

“Damien Moreau tried to threaten me.”

“And?”

“My daughter is currently living with one of the richest and most paranoid men in Dubai. Moreau can’t reach her. Yet.”

“You want my help?”

“No, Nate, I want to help you. I want to help you take down the bastard and lock him away forever. Put him somewhere so dark and isolated that he can never so much as think about my daughter.” James turns to face Nate. “Now, tell me what you and your people need.”

“You do this, you’ll be one of us. You’ll be part of the team.” Nate considers James seriously. “Are you prepared for that?”

“To take down Moreau? Yes.” James doesn’t even hesitate.

The team is less than thrilled, but do reluctantly admit that they need all the help they can get. They refuse to work with him one-on-one, sharing a room with him only in pairs or, frequently, trios. 

It isn’t until after everything, the hacks, the revelation about Spencer’s past, the thieving, the political manipulations, and Moreau is locked deep in a San Lorenzo cell, that the others begin to accept James. They begin to touch him on the shoulders and arms in shows of solidarity. They invite him on special missions and excursions. Spencer cooks for him. Parker tells him how she broke into the Gardner Museum. Hardison begins to include him in the money transfers. Sophie brings him as her Plus One to events Nate has no interest in, weeps onto his shoulder after a showing of Tosca. 

And Nate … 

Nate announces, one day, that they’re recovering Olivia from Dubai. They’re putting all their other jobs on hold until Olivia is safe. 

James, even at this point, expects the others to refuse, or object. 

Instead, they unanimously agree to help James save his daughter. 

 

4.

James comes to them, to their base, a desperate man. He harbors no illusions about this, no clever plots or schemes. He is desperate, and knows only one place to turn. 

He takes the beating Spencer dishes out, lands a few hits before Spencer’s hands are on his throat, squeezing. James counts on Nate to reign in his dog, and he does, once Sterling has begun to see stars. 

“Why are you here, Sterling?” Nate asks. 

“He has my daughter.” James says.

Nate freezes. 

James waits, as patiently as he can under the circumstances. 

“Your daughter,” Nate muses, toying with a glass.

“Yes.” 

“She’d be about … oh, fifteen?”

Sam’s age, had he lived. 

“What do you want me to do?” James asks, leaning forward now. “I will … I will do anything. _Anything_ Nate. You understand that.”

Nate’s mouth sets into a hard line. 

James has already made his peace with this. If Nate asks him to steal anything, from anywhere, he’ll do it or die trying. If Nate asks him to kill someone, anyone, he’ll do it. 

“Give me a moment to think about this.”

James clenches his fists. “We don’t have ‘a moment,’ Nate, she’s in danger right now! You can decide what to do with me later. Will you help me save her or not?”

Nate stands up. “I have a team, Sterling. I don’t just command them and give them orders. We have to discuss this, as a team.”

They leave, all of them, Spencer fixing James with a dark look on his way upstairs. 

James sits, and waits, for forty-two agonizing minutes. 

Nate returns, with the team. Spencer looks furious, Hardison and Parker don’t come very close, and Sophie … well, if there’s a man skilled enough to read Sophie Devereaux, James isn’t him. Yet. 

“We’re going to save her.” Nate says, sitting down across from James at the table.

James’ shoulders slump in relief. “Thank you.”

“In exchange, however, you’ll be ours for a year. Do whatever we ask, whenever we ask.”

James nods. It’s no better or worse than he expected. “Very well.”

Olivia is saved, sent to a safe place. Sterling hugs her for what very well might be the last time and leaves for Boston, arriving in the bar with nothing but a small suitcase. 

What follows is a series of what James can only charitably describe as “tests.” James endures them all, every coffee run he’s sent on, every stakeout in the rain, every session as the practice partner for Parker, and never complains. 

Spencer, oddly, warms to him the earliest. James saves him on a job from a pack of assailants, receives a brief nod of thanks, and the next evening Spencer cooks for him. This, apparently signals that some kind of threshold has been crossed. 

That draws in Parker and Hardison. James isn’t entirely sure if the three are sexually intimate, but he has his suspicions. These suspicions only grow, the more time he spends with them when they aren’t on jobs. They watch movies, practice basic skills, play cards. Parker begins to punch him on the arm, in what he assumes is an affectionate gesture, though she often raises bruises. 

Sophie is the last to accept him. James can understand that. A combination of his past as a lawman and his former intimacy with Nate can’t be comfortable for her. 

Nate solves this for them one night by getting drunk on the anniversary of Sam’s death. James and Sophie drag Nate to his hotel room and try to get him into bed, moving together automatically, removing Nate’s shoes and forcing him to drink a glass of water before he passes out entirely. Not quite as drunk as he initially appeared, Nate reaches out and catches both of them, dragging them down into the bed with him. 

“You’re my … my two favorite … my two … my best …” Nate slurs, breath reeking. 

James and Sophie look at each other, over Nate’s chest. 

“Truce?” James offers, deciding to be the gentleman. 

“Very well.” Sophie smiles a tentative smile. 

It takes three weeks for them to maneuver Nate into bed when he can actually remember, but then, they’re teammates at that point, and they can accomplish anything. 

 

5.

James gets into the car. He doesn’t even hesitate. He gets into the car in the passenger’s seat. Sophie drives them away from the government building, glancing at him every so often. 

James waits in the car while Nate and Sophie say their goodbyes. He waits a long time, wonders if they’ve left him, again. The thought of stumbling across them in a year or two in a café in Barcelona certainly has appeal, though he’d rather skip all that waiting. 

Nate and Sophie return, jubilant and a little tearful, a ring on Sophie’s hand. They roll into the backseat like teenagers, all limbs tangling and clothing rustling. 

James thinks at first that they’ve forgotten him entirely, or expected him to have left by now. 

“Drive us to the airport?” Sophie asks, arching up to look James in the eye. “If you would be so kind?”

“Why not.” James slides into the driver’s seat and pulls the keys from the sun visor. “Tickets?”

“We have a private plane. We can go anywhere in the world.” Nate says. 

James pulls into traffic. He can’t hold back asking. “… we?”

“Yes,” Sophie says. “Oh, we hadn’t quite gotten around to discussing that yet?”

“To be fair, we have been a bit busy, James!” Nate points out.

Sophie yanks him back for more kissing.

James keeps his eyes on the road. There’ll be plenty of time to see more, on the private plane, apparently. 

 

\+ 1

James runs into Nate and Sophie in Paris, while he’s pursuing a gang of diamond thieves. There’s grey in Nate’s hair, and Sophie’s smile is warm, and there isn’t the slightest hint of a crime around them. Their interaction is brief, fleeting, just enough to give him a glimpse of what might have been, once upon a time.

It’s not until later that James finds the scrap of paper in his pocket. Sophie must have slipped it to him. The card holds an address back in the States with three circles beside it, and a phone number with two Xs beside it. 

He chooses the address. 

This time, Spencer doesn’t beat him. Parker doesn’t glare at him. Hardison doesn’t seek to humiliate him. 

Instead, Spencer … cooks for him. Parker asks after the latest heists she’s noticed him pursuing. Hardison talks about a new kind of identity theft that’s on the rise in Latin America. 

When they mention a job coming up for them, a job that requires a fourth player, he should be surprised, shocked even. He should refuse.

James accepts the role. A diverting weekend, a much-needed vacation … that’s what he tells himself initially. 

Four weeks later and there’s no going back. He knows it, and they know it. Parker sits down with him at the brewpub, and they talk. They talk about a lot of things: his career at Interpol, his daughter, how the new arrangement at Leverage works. Parker asks about Sophie and Nate, and the past four weeks, and what he thinks of the work that they do.

“We could use somebody with your skills,” Parker says, as blunt as ever. “Will you join the team?”

James thinks about it, and realizes that the fact he’s even considering it at all instead of dismissing her outright is all the answer anyone needs. 

“If you’ll have me, then yes.” James nods. 

Parker smiles and reaches over to shake his hand. 

That night, Eliot cooks a feast, coupled with the rare brew from James’ old pub back home – a tiny place that certainly doesn’t ship its wares abroad. He’d been expecting this, planning, there’s no way he could have just nipped over to West London for a pint in the past three hours. 

“You knew before I did,” James accuses, after taking several sips from his glass. 

“Probably, yeah,” Eliot admits. 

“Surprised you held out this long,” Hardison says. 

Parker is huddled comfortably against Hardison’s side, listening to the proceedings but not contributing any words of her own for now. She’s far more tactile than she used to be, James remembers from the earlier days. He’s seen her holding hands with Eliot, when they thought he wasn’t looking, though maybe they did know he was looking. 

“Don’t tell me you had a bet going,” James groans. 

“… ok, we won’t tell you.” Eliot grins. 

James glares at him, but there’s no real ire behind it. 

“Welcome aboard,” Hardison raises his glass of orange soda. Parker raises her glass too, as does Eliot. 

“Cheers,” James says, raising his pint.

Their glasses clink, the night wears on, and James Sterling’s new life begins.


End file.
